The interstellar medium and star formation in edge-on galaxies. II. NGC 4157, 4565, and 5907
- Department of Astronomy, University of Illinois, 1002 West Green Street, Urbana, IL 61801 (United States)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of New Mexico, 1919 Lomas Boulevard NE, Albuquerque, NM 87131-1156 (United States)
- Department of Physics, University of Alberta, CCIS 4-183, Edmonton, AB T6G 2E1 (Canada)
- Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen, P.O. Box 800, 9700 AV Groningen (Netherlands)
- Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, 800 West Main Street, Whitewater, WI 53190 (United States)
We present a study of the vertical structure of the gaseous and stellar disks in a sample of edge-on galaxies (NGC 4157, 4565, and 5907) using BIMA/CARMA {sup 12}COJ=1→0, VLA Hi, and Spitzer 3.6 μm data. In order to take into account projection effects when we measure the disk thickness as a function of radius, we first obtain the inclination by modeling the radio data. Using the measurement of the disk thicknesses and the derived radial profiles of gas and stars, we estimate the corresponding volume densities and vertical velocity dispersions. Both stellar and gas disks have smoothly varying scale heights and velocity dispersions, contrary to assumptions of previous studies. Using the velocity dispersions, we find that the gravitational instability parameter Q follows a fairly uniform profile with radius and is ⩾1 across the star-forming disk. The star formation law has a slope that is significantly different from those found in more face-on galaxy studies, both in deprojected and pixel-by-pixel plots. Midplane gas pressure based on the varying scale heights and velocity dispersions appears to roughly hold a power-law correlation with the midplane volume density ratio.
- OSTI ID:
- 22342202
- Journal Information:
- Astronomical Journal (New York, N.Y. Online), Vol. 148, Issue 6; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1538-3881
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
THE INTERSTELLAR MEDIUM AND STAR FORMATION IN EDGE-ON GALAXIES. I. NGC 891
THE ROLE OF MOLECULAR GAS IN OBSCURING SEYFERT ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI ,